Christmas, oh what a lovely Christmas
by jenesaispas14
Summary: A Special Agent, a small, overly excited girl and a yellow-winged pony... Callen gets invited to spend the holidays with Sam s family.
1. Chapter 1

**I got the idea about writing this, when I watched the episode Higher Power of season 3. **

**And I just found out, that there is already gingerbread in stores. (omg... I love gingerbread) I just felt like writing something about Christmas.**

**( In this case, Sam has a wife, Michelle (like in the series) and just a daughter, whose name is Clara , Sam´s mother, Sheila, will also make an appearance. )**

Another case is closed and the team celebrates Christmas Eve together. Everyone is happy and smiling, when Callen lifts his glass and toasts "To friends and the family we have."

"You know, the invite is still open. We´d be happy to have you over for Christmas tomorrow. Clara wants to see her favourite uncle again and Michelle hasn´t seen you in what, months? We can offer you a nice guest room for the holidays, but I need to remind you not to take apart the kitchen´s utensils again." Sam mentioned the last part of the sentence with a huge smile on his face, even though he was still annoyed by the fact that his friend disturbed his sleep with all the noises in the middle of the night, taking apart his toaster, when his wife offered Callen to stay with them over the weekend, some months ago.

Callen is family, he is like a brother to Sam, thus becoming uncle Callen to Sam´s 8-year-old daughter, Clara, who adores him really much.

"Yeah, about that, you don´t plan on making peanut butter sandwiches, are you?"

"Come on G, seriously?"

"I´m just saying, Sam..."

Still smiling, Sam pats G´s shoulder

"Come on man, I am giving you a lift home...It´s been a long day."

Sam just wants to go home to his lovely family and to wrap up the little winged pony, Eric got him for his daughter. Fortunately he does not have to bring up the idea with blaming uncle Callen for not getting his daughter the promised present, but still, it would have been quite some fun. Just seeing the horrified look on his partner´s face hours ago, made him chuckle.

When Sam´s black challenger pulls up in front of Callen´s house, he pauses a moment to watch his partner.

"Maybe I´ll really come by tomorrow. Not because you repeatedly asked me to, but to see Clara and Michelle."

Sam just answers in the same mocking tone "Sure...´night G."

Callen gets out of the car and breathes in the clear, cold air surrounding him, and when he steps into his house, turns the lights on and takes his shoes and his jacket off, G thinks about Sam´s offer.

Truth be told, now that he sees the stark bare rooms in his house, which only include the most necessary things, G can imagine spending time with the Hanna family over the holidays, instead of sitting alone in this house, that does not really feel like home, sweet home.

Besides, Michelle´s cooking is really excellent. He could never say no to that.

**The 25th of December**

It is Christmas and you can hear squealing coming from the Hanna household. This can only mean that Clara finally got her little yellow-winged pony.

Michelle is just preparing things for a nice, late breakfast, because once Clara stormed into her parents bedroom that morning, being all hyper, there was no time for breakfast. Presents first, breakfast later.

The doorbell is ringing, when Sam sits down with his daughter, playing with the toy pony.

Michelle opens the door and...of course it is Callen.

"Callen! Come in, come in...it´s so good to see you. It´s been a long time." with that she hugged her husband´s partner tightly.

He returns her hug and immediately feels good about coming there. "It´s good to see you too. Well, it´s been some tough weeks...but hey, I´m here now. Merry Christmas."

Spending time at the Hanna household is always fun, Callen loves Clara, this little girl could make him forget about everything bad in the world. Even now as he enters the house, he feels good,the smell of tea, coffee, freshly baked cookies and breakfast is in the air. _THIS _ feels like home.

"Look at what the cat dragged in... glad you could make it partner." Sam got up and comes towards his best friend and welcomes him. In exactly that moment something small comes running down the hallway... G knows what is coming and already bents down and opens his arms to let Clara, who is all excited, jump into his embrace "Uncle Callen! I missed you so much. I have to show you something..." Sam and Michelle watch, laughing, as their daughter drags their guest towards the living room.

_This is going to be an amazing Christmas._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Once Callen is in the living room with his favourite "niece", who immediately starts talking about all the cool things her favourite new toy can do, Michelle returns to her work in the kitchen and Sam joins his partner and his daughter, because (pssshhh) Sam Hanna is really _not_ to be trusted with a frying pan and all the other different things of the kitchen´s equipment, except for, maybe, the coffee machine.

Seeing both grown man, who happen to be Agents, sitting on the floor, being all excited because of a toy pony-that is something, Michelle wishes never to forget. It puts a smile on her face, when she puts pancakes on the four plates on the table.

The dining table is decorated with several candles and Clara had even assisted her grandma, Sheila, with making a new Christmas tablecloth.

"See, I told you this was no ordinary pony, G."

-Callen has to admit, this winged-pony is something special. He would never have thought, that a toy could respond to 30 commands and even flap its wings, though G is still wondering about where Eric got the Parker Pony.

"I hate to interrupt youkids, but the pancakes are waiting. " -Michelle does not hide the smile, that is creeping up onto her face, when she sees the men´s looks on their faces, when she said _kids_.

It was a mix between being annoyed and shocked, it was priceless.

Callen is the first one to break the silence, "Well, I will just act as if I didn´t hear that, because I love your pancakes Michelle" smirking at his best friend he ads "and you do have peanut butter, right? I know, that Sam would really love to have his pancakes served with peanut butter."

Everyone sits down and they eat their pancakes, when Clara asks her favourite uncle if he has ever seen snow.

Callen then tells them about a year, where he had spend Christmas in Germany.

( It was for a mission with the FBI once, but he just tells Clara that he was there for vacation... The true reason for the trip there is definitely not a story for children. )

He then describes every little detail about the weather, about the cold, what the snow felt like, what it looked like when it covered everything around him.

"It was like the most beautiful thing I´ve ever seen. It looked like as if the whole world was covered with a white blanket, and when I walked on the icy ground, it squeaked and kind of crunched beneath my feet.

Close your eyes Clara and imagine that you would walk over crunchy cereals on the floor... can you imagine what it would sound like? "

While Callen tries to explain the sound to Clara, the doorbell rings.

No one has noticed how the time passed.

Both Michelle and Clara are hanging onto G´s lips, so its up to Sam to open the door for another guest.

It is...

Sheila, Sam´s mother. What a surprise.

( It is just a surprise for Callen, but it is a surprise nonetheless.)

"Sam my boy, come, give me a hug. Merry Christmas.

What is all the laughing about? I could already hear it, when I stepped out of my car."

Before Sam can answer his Mom, she walks off into the living room, up to the dining table,

"That voice can only belong to one man that I know... already thought I heard you from outside. G Callen, what a surprise to meet you here. "

Sheila is genuinly happy about the fact, that her son´s partner came over. She loved him from the first moment on, that they met. He is something like a second son.

Callen even trusted her with his family history, that he practically knows nothing about them, and that he had lived in 37 foster homes.

Not that he needed pity, but Sheila cares for him and always wants to make sure, that he has everything he needs.

After the shooting, she visited him often, but thereafter she has not seen him much. Work was really exhausting and time consuming for both, Sam and Callen.

Now back to the present, she first opens her arms for her grandchild and places a kiss on top of Clara´s head.

"Merry Christmas grams, uncle Callen just told us something about snow...it is so exciting." Clara, always hyper, jumps around.

"I bet it is." looking at Callen, Sheila smiles and G finally stands up and hugs her.

"Sheila, Sheila, Sheila...as beautiful as always. It´s really good to see you."

"Trying to be charming as always...and where are the manners..."

-There it is, the familiar joking between those two. One could really think of them as a family, a family formed by a bond far stronger than blood.-

With the last one to complete the round, all of them finally settle down and there are more presents coming for Clara.

Callen brought a stuffed seal and tickets for the newly opened zoo for Sam´s daughter. She loves seals and they have a show with seals in the zoo, so G thought it would be a nice idea for the three, Michelle, Sam and Clara, to spend an afternoon with the family in a zoo, were they have seals.

Besides, the big stuffed seal reminds him of his friend. Sam is kind of huge as well and has a big heart as well. Sam is just someone you have to like and seals have an affect on people like that as well. AND, Sam was a Navy SEAL.

Clara loves the present from Callen and wraps her tiny arms tightly around his neck to thank him.

All of the presents are unwrapped now and they eat cookies and drink tea, hot chocolate and coffee, Sam, Michelle, Sheila and Callen sit down on the sofas in the living room, near the Christmas tree, and watch Christmas films.

Clara sits down on Callen´s lap and has the stuffed seal in her arms and soon falls asleep, while watching Rudolph the red-nosed-reindeer.

At the end of the film, both Clara and Callen are fast asleep. Callen is half lying on the sofa, with Clara in his arms, who rests her head on his chest.

No one wants to disturb them, they look just too cute together, so Sam helps Michelle prepare the turkey for dinner and Sheila takes a picture of the pair on the sofa and then makes herself helpful in the kitchen as well. There better be two grown ups with Sam in the kitchen, so he will not burn it down.

Some time later, G wakes up and carefully untangles himself from Clara, who has an astaundingly (for her size) tight grip on his shirt and gets up, only to find outhat the little winged pony, which the girl had put next to the sofa, is missing.

...


	3. Chapter 3

_**First of all I want to thank everyone for the reviews and so on. - You are awesome, thanks :)**_

_**And about the girl´s name, Clara, ... I just thought, that it would be nice to have somewhat of a reminder of Callen´s real family. The name just popped up in my head, in my opinion it just fits Sam´s daughter.**_

**Chapter 3**

The Parker Pony is missing? That just has to be a dream. Callen still remebers seeing the yellow-winged pony sitting right beside the sofa. Clara put it there after playing with it.

_Maybe she put it somewhere else and he did not notice it. _

Callen then joins the others in the kitchen.

"Aw the sleepyhead finally decided to join us, you can make yourself useful and help me with this..." Sheila pointed to the pudding she is making.

"G, ... you in a kitchen? You only use your fridge and the coffee machine... and mabe even the microwave... that´s funny. Mom should come over to your´s and help you out and show you how to properly cook meals. Maybe you´ll even have to use the oven for once. " Sam mocks his partner.

"Hey, at least I´ve never burned down the kitchen. AND I know how too cook, I just don´t have the time for it."

"Accidentally! I accidentally, ALMOST, burned down the kitchen. I had it all under control G."

Both Michelle and Sheila look bemused. They will never forget the "accident" that happened months ago.

One time they were out with Clara to buy her new shoes and Sam was supposed to stay at home and wait for them.

Callen came over for a football game and when he reached the house, he saw smoke and the front door was open. Alarmed, Callen ran into the house, only to find his friend cursing in the kitchen... Sam wanted to make an omlet and everything went wrong, that could go wrong. The frying pan and the entire stove was on fire.

Callen immediately helped his friend to quench the fire.

"What happened Sam?! " Only then, when Sam turned around to answer the question, Callen saw that Sam wore a pink apron, which made him laugh, despite the situation that his partner almost burned down the kitchen.

In exactly that moment, Sheila and Michelle also returned home, they brought Clara to a friends´ after shopping, and they and the scene before them was shocking, they actually thought, that a fire broke out in the house, but now it is a story everyone can laugh about.

Clara comes running into the kitchen, with a sad look on her face.

"Honey, what happened?" Michelle asks her daughter.

"I am sure I put my pony beside the sofa, but it isn´t there anymore..."

It was a heartbreaking sight to see the girl on the verge of crying.

Sam sighs, "I am sorry, when you two were sleeping, I put your toy under the Christmas tree, I thought it would be safer there, so no one could trip over it. "

He goes towards the tree to pick his daughter´s toy up, but to his surprise it is not anywhere to be found.

"Are you sure you really put it there Sam? You´re getting old, you know." G mentions with a chuckle. He loves to annoy his friend.

"Yes, I am sure G. " there it is again, the glaring at his partner "Instead of making up jokes on my cost, you could help me search for it, okay?"

Now both men are on the ground and looking around for Clara´s toy.

A yellow-winged pony can not be so hard to find, can it?

"Okay, let´s do what we can do best, let´s investiagte."

"Yeah, but this is no ordinary "crime scene"... Sam... This is a missing toy for god´s sake. But we can do it your way... I would ask all the whitnesses about it and maybe a suspect will turn up... and we already have a suspect: You. You were the one who took it away... " -Callen makes a serious face and then turns towards the others - "Clara, don´t worry, I´ll make sure, that you´ll get your pony back, that´s a promise."

While Callen leads the investigations about the missing pony, Clara is seated in front of the tv, with cookies and another hot chocolate to calm her down and all the grown ups gather around the kitchen table.

Callen then questions Sam about everything, what exactly happened when he put it away and then Michelle and Sheila, as whitnesses, confirm that they saw Sam taking the pony but neither one of them knew where he put it.

"This is going to be difficult. Okay, Michelle and Sheila will search this side of the house and I will search around here..." Callen points to the different directions.

"And what about me?", Sam asks.

"You, my friend, will sit down with your daughter and be there for her."

**Today´s target: Recovering the missing toy.**

_This is hopeless...where could this pony be?_

Callen is about to give up, but in that moment, a blur of black and yellow passes him. It is a cat.

In fact, it is Lucky, the neighbour´s cat, who the Hanna´s took in over the holidays, because their neighbours are spending the holidays in Italy.

And Callen can not believe what he sees...the cat is a thief! The cat just drags the pony with one of the blue wings in its mouth with it and attempts to run away with it and hide it.

No, no, no...a cat... Callen can not be outrun by a cat!

He chases after the cat and ends up standing in the hallway by the door that leads outside.

In the end Callen, who now has multiple scratches on his arms, brings the toy in his posession and curses the cat and when Michelle and Sheila join him, he says "I really don´t like cats, this one..." he points to Lucky who seems to be asleep now on the one sofa- " is a thief..."

Everyone laughs and Clara finally has her favourite toy back.

**The mystery of the missing pony is solved...finally.**

"Now that everything is back to normal, we can finally procede with our cooking and hopefully we´ll be able to celebrate Christmas without further unnecessary interruptions." Sam´s mom is very eager to get back to the normal routine.

It is decided that both women do not need the help of the men in the kitchen, especially Callen has done enough already, he chased after the cat and found Clara´s beloved pony.

Christmas music sounds throughout the house, Michelle starts to sing and Callen and Sam play games with Clara and enjoy the rest of the afternoon in a comfortable environment... finally the stress of the last few days lets off of them and they can relax.

Dinner is ready and they sit down, each one being thankful for the company of the others. They spend hours laughing and just being happy, joking, telling stories about this and that.

In times like these, Callen is really thankful for having such wonderful friends, that became his family.

Times like these make him realise, that he cherishes each and every moment, that he can spend with them.

This ist just the magical time of the year.

For Callen it means love and warmth, the blessing of another year together with some of the most important persons in his life.

This is something he never wants to forget.

"Merry Christmas, G. I am glad that you are here with us today. Love you brother."

Callen´s lips turn upwards, forming a big smile.

Yes, this is exactly where he belongs.


End file.
